Washington, D.C. area ranks eighth among the most expensive metros in the nation for buying a home, according to a new report released by the mortgage resource website HSH.com.
The annual salary required to afford a home in the region is about $95,000, as home prices in D.C. continue to rise. The annual income needed is $94,408 a year with 20 percent down, while the amount goes up to $109,000 at 10 percent down.
HSH.com made use of the latest available information on home prices, local property taxes and insurance costs of homeowners to determine the income needed to qualify for a median-priced home. The study is based on the home-price data from the fourth quarter of 2018.
“Home prices continued to rise in the vast majority of markets but with inventory steadily increasing, home prices are, on average, rising at a slower and healthier pace,” said National Association of Realtors (NAR) Chief Economist Lawrence Yun.
Yun added that the West region is witnessing the biggest shift with the “slowest price gain and large buyer pullback” as home prices have nearly doubled in the region over the past six years.
San Jose ranked first as the most expensive metropolitan area on the list, while Pittsburgh was at the bottom as the least expensive metropolitan area for buying a home. The study found a whopping $217,000 difference between the amount of annual incomes required to afford a home in the two areas.
The study revealed that compared to the third quarter of 2018, the median home prices in the fourth quarter of 2018 were lower. However, in many other cases including Baltimore and D.C., year-over-year prices showed an increase.
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